10 Babies Who Didn’t Know Where They Were in 2012

No. 10: Jessica Heap, The Young and the Restless

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, while expecting a different result. This applies to certain soap characters. The Young and the Restless is on their third casting of Michael's (Christian LeBlanc) younger sister Eden Baldwin. It doesn't look like her predecessors left Jessica Heap a road map, because this baby definitely didn't know where she was in 2012.

Heap furrowing her brow intently, as Eden strained to recall what happened the night Ricky (Peter Porte) died made us want to watch with our hands covering our eyes, fingers spread apart just enough to witness the acting carnage. The third time definitely hasn't been the charm for Eden, or the actress playing her.

Bruce Weitz doesn’t belong on this list! He was always captivating as Anthony. Ditto for James Franco. I guess I just have a soft spot for sexy, dark-haired cuties and depraved psychopaths. Both brought intensity and a certain appeal to their stories. I just wish that Anthony or Franco would come back to rid me of Cartoon Connie.

So glad that I am not the ONLY one who is over Connie Falcoloony. Kelly Sullivan has chewed more scenery in the past six months than Brenda Dickson and Judith Chapman combined. One second, I love her and marvel in how good an actress she is, and the next second, I am rolling my eyes as she goes back to making stupid facial expressions and just being annoying again. Ron C loves his little pet projects. I felt the same way about Messica Buchanan/Bree Williamson.

Erik Valdez might have been a DECENT actor, but his “dramatic” scenes were laughable. Guy couldn’t emote sadness to save his life. His version of sadness came across as constipation.

I have raised holy hell over Julie Paceless Mitchell and Yvonne Zimaless AD NAUSEUM, so I will take a break this time around.

I don’t think Jessica Heap was necessarily a bad actress, just forgettable and bland. They should have killed off Eden and kept that luscious Peter Porte around. Another of Hackarena’s crappy ideas. Bring Ricky back to life, damnit!

Bruce Weisz (sp?) has a long list of acting credits, an interesting character and good writing – but – his approach to the character was full of odd acting choices including his odd accent, the lack of tonality, and he never seemed to be responding to his scene partners.

On the other hand we have Linsey Godfrey, her character is ill-defined (what’s her job at FC & why doesn’t she work or own part of Spencer?), her motivations are never clear (who does she like, where does she live?), and she cowers at every interaction with Bill when she should be his antagonist – but the writing is so poor on B&B that is is hard to blame Linsey who may be great if given better writing.

I guess there wasn’t room for the DAYS’ entire writing staff because they clearly don’t know where they are at!

I disagree about Bruce Weitz. I found his performances enjoyable despite the poorly written character of Anthony Zacharra. I particularly liked Weitz when paired in scenes with Jen Lilley’s Maxie. Jen Lilley was fine recast for Maxie and played the character when she was featured front and center for much of 2012. I digress. I just don’t see the talent where Erik Valdez is concerned and happy to know Trey is exiting Port Charles soon.

I actually think Kelly Sullivan is a good actress given a terrible character. I think Steve Burton often seemed “checked out” and somewhere else playing Jason Morgan on GH and probably warranted being in this list. Scott Reeves is another actor I’d add to this list.

#3
“The talented Erik Valdez (Trey) might have been salvageable if he’d had a better screen partner. Somebody had to say it…”

Indeed!!! Trey, while unwanted by the viewing audience and Connie, kind of grew on me. While Lindsay Morgan seems likeable offscreen, her acting skills remind me of a bad date. I just wanna yell “… NEXT!”

[quote=hey mon]I guess I’m the only one who thought that Eden was an integral part of the Show. Ricky, Eden… oh well.[/quote]

I won’t go as far as to say she was integral to the show as written, but I thought the character had potential–just like Ricky–and I’ve never understood the hate from this site for Jessica Heap(and speaking of, shocked Camila Banus isn’t on here considering she seems to get more flak on DC than anyone this side of Kelly Sullivan). Given the material, she was a helluva long way from a disaster and on most occasions I thought she was pretty good(the early Abby/Eden rivalry showed some potential).

As for the rest of the list, there’s zero doubt in my mind that Julia Pace Mitchell got a generous rank here; completely wooden and charisma-free, she belongs at number one, no questions asked. That means that, yes, she’s worse than Yvonne Zima ever thought about being. Yeah, I said it.

Looks like the DC staff was a bit harsh on the ladies of daytime and a bit more forgiving of the men. Hmmmm. Wonder why that is?

Since OLTL’s Viki & Clint can be rewarded as a top 10 couple of 2012 (which they deserved) I think OLTL can also be recognized for having some pretty lost in the wood babies for the 1 month that they were on this year….Andrew Trischita who played “Jack” could have a GPS and he would still couldn’t find his way out of a port-a-potty. I would also acknowlege the Ford Brothers on OLTL but since you couldn’t tell them apart I won’t single them out, but just lump them together.

And since it is almost a new year and my resolution is to be more truthful I want to add Kristen Alderson to this list. I watched her grow up and understand the attachment seeing child actors grow up in front of our eyes. BUT, soap producers have to acknowledge the limits of an actor regradless if they grew up on the soap or not. Alderson’s “Starr” isn’t strong enough to play the young lead love story. She isn’t Genie Francis from the 1970s or Kimberly McCullough, Amber Tamblyn or Jonathan Jackson of the 1990s. I understand the value of the character since she is Todd & Blair’s kid, but how about recasting her in 2013???

Most of the people on the above list didn’t have years to hone their acting and create a character in the short time they were on. Alderson has had close to 20 years in the role and she still doesn’t get it.

Lindsey Morgan is a fine actress. No, she isn’t wonderful, but I thought she did a great job with the material she had to work with. Answorth was quite possibly one of the worst actresses that has ever been son GH. Gald she’s gone. I loved the woman in white story. I just wished they hadn’t killed her off, so we could see where they story would go.

I don’t think newestEden was a bad actress at all. When she was brought in I thought she’d get more story, but of course it was another failure of the writers at the time.

I also liked Daisy’s last return and the way she was able to torment Phil. Some good Y and R scenes actually and had some potential until the new writers nixed that story too quickly. Sorry folks, I liked it. But yes, not the most skilled actress. Uh hum..

Lastly I also feel sorry for Sophia. An odd character to have brought onto the show. Like Harmony she just kind of drifted through the bad writing given her. I never bought the relationship she had with Malcolm, Neil or even Tucker. Bad.

Let’s see if Josh can keep the Y and R character off this list next year.

Lindsey Morgan is growing on me and I think it takes awhile to get used to acting on soaps. I think she will get better if given a chance with the right material. I know some people do not like Kristen Alderson but I think she is a great actress and obviously so does DC.

Lindsey is way better than the actress that plays Hope. I felt sorry for her today when Bill unleashed on her. I never have any feelings for Hope. I do love that comparison that she doesn’t know where she is. I wish they would have added Hope too. GH needs to get the oldKristina back. I do feel sorry for Trey. He is going to be killed off and I’m srarting to like his character. Eden is a good actress.

not sure how you forgot that first actor who played TJ on GH this year. That poor kid didn’t know how to stand or even look relaxed when he didn’t have a line, and couldn’t deliver even a couple of words without sounding like a 4th grader reading a book report in front a classroom. It was painful to watch, and not just sometimes, it was painful every time he appeared. His replacement has been the opposite: relaxed, confident, and charismatic. I wish they’d give him more to do.

Reluctantly, I have to agree with you. I grew up with Starr and have always liked Kristen, but with the move to GH it’s become very clear that she’s not up to the challenge. KA has no chemistry with CD, at all, which is a huge missed opportunity for the show. Her acting seems very one-note much of the time (any scene with Johnny or Connie, for example) and tho I think they should recast or write her out for the sake of the show, I cannot imagine anyone else playing Starr in a scene with Roger Howarth or Kassie de Paiva

ITA re: Kelly Sullivan. Carlivati (who I do like, generally) writes alters over the top: Nikki Smith, Tess (or was it Bess? I can’t even remember now) Buchanan, and Connie… at least Erika Slezak and Kelly Sullivan made their portrayals fun to watch. (poor Bree Williamson was another story however)
I agree with you about Steve Burton, Scott Reeves, and Jen Lilley & Bruce Weitz. I don’t understand why they released Jen Lilley to bring back KS

I wanted to add that I agree with others about how poor Kristen Alderson has been. She’s an actress whose ability has seemed to regress over time. She was a horror to watch her first six months on GH and I haven’t enjoyed her performances since 2007 on OLTL. KA needed a break away from OLTL to take acting courses and/or gain life experience because she has never been able to carry the storylines written for Starr Manning as lead heroine.

I think Yvonne Zima (no relation, thank god) should have been #1. What a total and complete waste of air time she was. I hope that JFP at least has enough sense to never bring her back again. (And with Daniel gone [yeah] there should be no reason for her return.)

Also, I agree that Kristin Alderson should have been on this list. Once she grew up and grew out of her snake and lizard obsession, she became one of the most horrible and uninteresting “teen” actors out there. Even though I’m not a big fan of Kimberly/Robin (GH), I know talent when I see it and I’m not seeing it with Kristin/Starr.

I think Kelly Sullivan is a talented actress, but the crap they give her to perform is causing her to be on all these “Worst” lists. CarTini needs to integrate her immediately and not just as Kate. I still want her to ridicule Sonny constantly!

Julia Pace Mitchell. I think they should have made Sophia a lesbian, or something like that. That would have worked pretty well, a lesbian, new mother trying to raise her new baby, Moses. Maybe even fighting Neil for custody thrown in.

Daisy was ten million times better the second time around, when she was simply trying to torment Phyllis. Zuma was always a one-note actress, and could only play the ‘villainess’ half-way decent.

@Jamey Giddens: ya’ll referred to JPM as black royalty once on here. Only the Ross daughters Traci and Rhonda can claim that title and they can act too. JPM was nothing more than a peasant who snuck into the castle and pretended to be of royal linage.

^^Happy New Year, david46208. I am not sure why anyone on DC would have qualified Julia Pace Mitchell as “Black Royalty” but perhaps, she was dubbed “Black Royalty” before she was viewed acting as Sophia (LOL.) JPM is the daughter of 70’s star, Judy Pace. Judy Pace starred in “Cotton Comes To Harlem” and I believe that she was the first ever African-American woman featured as a Playboy centerfold.

You have really missed an obvious one here – Christel Khalil.That girl has no energy in her acting and it seems like it’s an effort for her at times to be there.God only knows what they have planned for her with the new Tyler character……yawn,yawn,yawn!!! She’s a pretty face and really needs to work harder.She’s lucky she still has her job!

I disagree re Kelly Sullivan and I think she’s doing a very good job.The storyline though needs to come to a conclusion.

Both of Julia Pace Mitchell’s parents were top stars in the seventies. If the Fondas, the Coppolas, and other Hollywood progeny are considered Hollywood royalty, then this girl, whatever her acting talents, can certainly be called that.

^^Happy New Year, SoapArmageddon. I had to go look up who Julia Pace Mitchell’s father was and he was the actor Don Mitchell. He starred in Ironside and Scream!Blacula!Scream! Both Don Mitchell and Judy Pace were quite popular Black actors in the 1960s and 1970s. They were groundbreakers.

[quote=mfarris70]Totally disagree about Kelly Sullivan! I think she’s giving a great comedic performance. This story is being played more for laughs than drama.[/quote]

I agree with you. I think Kelly Sullivan is doing very well in the role. I actually don’t mind the storyline either. It has been played out for laughs which is needed. And I actually will be surprised if she doesn’t get an emmy nod for that scene in which she recounted her rape by Joe Jr. It left me with chills!

Sorry, I have to call BS on Kelly Sullivan as Kate/Connie. I think that given the inane material, she is rocking it. All that I require is that an actor commit, and Kelly Sullivan commits to the ridiculous role of Connie.

I really want her to return to the ‘Devil Wears Prada’ archetype she was introduced as. I want her to reclaim her life as KATE and wreak havoc on fashion interns again.

Also, I wish Ron or Frank would get on wardrobe to make her dress the part of a fashion maven. Once she is integrated again.

I do think that many actors were given horrible characters and/ or writing. Somehow I think, Texas Battle in another show, in another kind of role, could have some chops.

With Yvonne Zima, it is clear that her acting chops aren’t very sizeable. However I must admit I enjoyed Daisy’s second-to-last stint when she was set on torturing Phyllis and she and ricky were trying to one-up each other on creepiness. It’s like someone here said earlier, YZ works best as the one-note villainess.

The one I really disagree with is Jessica Heap. She has a natural, earthy, realistic way about her, and yet she fits all the soap criteria too. I really liked her, she was definitely the best out of the three Edens, and I kept hoping and waiting for her to be given the proper material to flesh out the character. I kept waiting for them to amplify her romance with Kyle, with them possibly getting married or getting pregnant, and so we would have had a new generation in Kyle & Eden Abbott. However, as we now know, that never happened, and now she is out of Y&R. I really hope her all the best in her future endeavours, and hope she makes it in primetime.

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